For those boys who remain in the village after leaving public school —(some of the boys enter into local apprenticeship, but most of them are farm-hands)— continuation school courses are organized by the same authorities which handle the matters of the local schools. These courses (evening classes), which are conducted by the two senior teachers, are so arranged as not to interfere with the general work during the heavy season in farming. In cidentally the largest agricultural establishment of the a manor originally forming apart of the local settle ment of the Roman Catholic Church, has pro duced an agricultural school of considerable standing. In it two main courses in two years are offered. The curriculum in the first place takes up the subjects which would be offered in the continuation school. Thus boys attend ing this school are excused from attending the latter. Secondly, the curriculum covers the elementary branches of scientific farming. A considerable part of the time is given to prac tical work in field and nursery. Some six to seven teachers, including the director, who preferably is the owner of the farm, constitute the teaching staff. While this school is practi cally self-supporting and independent of state help, it is formally endorsed by the provincial goverrunent. The granting of the alicentia docendiu in the case of appointment of the director is a matter of approval on the ground of university courses covered successfully by, the applicant (generally at the agricultural de partment of the university of the province, in this particular case Halle /a. Saale). The school of agriculture of this German village (although having the character of a boarding school) can well be classed with the trade schools of a city. It covers the ground which continuation schools are to cover and in addi tion it offers a valuable training in farming. Not a few of the young men in this school are natives of the village who after graduation take up practical farming. Another school of this kind in the neighborhood within less than two hours' railroad distance is the Ackerbau schule in the city of Helmstedt, formerly a university town in the duchy of Brunswick. From this can be gathered the frequency of such schools within a section of the country of which comparatively little is known outside of Germany. This district cannot be called highly populated; it furnishes rather a fair mid dle between the crowded conditions of the big cities and the industrial districts and such con ditions as may be found in the thinly populated provinces of the east. In each case, however, the volks-schule as a public utility of first order is expected to lay the foundation for continuation schools and trade schools, thus making education a common thing to the entire nation. While it perpetuates safely the social structure of the nation it creates a common ground from which those whose ability has been tested may rise by entering systems of the higher order.
The nine years' course of gymnasium, real gymnasium, ober-realschule, is preceded by a three years' course of vor-schule. The latter is not necessarily an organic part of the school systems to which it leads up, but for reasons of economy many municipal budgets show the maintenance only of the complete nine years' course of the gymnasium or realgymnasium or ober-realschule. In this latter case the work preparatory (preliminary) to entering the gymnasium, etc., is assigned to the lower classes of the volks-schule. Thus the princi ple of possible transition from volks-schule to gymnasium is firmly established at the early age of nine. Entrance into the gymnasium takes place automatically; i.e., without special ex amination, wherever the vor-schule has been made an organic part of the higher system. The nine classes of the latter, whether gymnasium or realgymnasium or ober-real schule, are: Sexta, Quinta, Quarta, Unter tertia, Ober-tertia, Unter-sekunda, Ober sekunda, Unter-prima, Ober-prima or in the customary abbreviation: VI, V, IV, UIII, OIII, UII, OII, UI, 01. (The in the German word gyms shins is pronounced like the first in Albany).
The schools referred to are non-coeduca tional. Not all boys enter exactly at the age of nine; also, transfers owing to change of the parental home which is quite frequent in the career of governmental officials, illness and actual delay through inability to cover the course, account for the average age at the time of graduation at the end of the ninth year to be about 19% to 20. There are two distinct goals for which the gymnasium, real-gymnasium and ober-realschule prepare: First, promotion from unter-sekunda to ober-sekunda implies that a great many branches of civil service and co-ordinated private careers are open with out examination. Ina nation which has prac
tically espoused public ownership for most of its public institutions and utilities a vast range of opportunities and careers is open to the youth of the upon having passed this first goal in the curriculum of the schools of the higher order. Careers of this kind are those in the postal service of the nation which includes all telegraph, telephone and essentially all parcel (express) service, in the railroad service of the country; to which should be added the field of electric street-car service gen erally under municipal control, gas and power plants being owned and run by the communi ties, also forestry service which is manipulated by the nation's appointees. Public instruction and, of course, the entire professional person nel of the national army and navy must be included. Intermediary positions fully estab lishing a livelihood much coveted are open in all these branches. While transition from careers thus entered upon into positions re quiring higher degrees of training are rare, yet by no means legally excluded, the passing of the second goal, graduation after nine years, carries with it universal recognition for every branch of public life.
The certificate issued by these schools of the higher order upon promotion into ober-sekunda entitles the bearer to possible promotion in the reserve military forces of the nation; this meaning substantially a more rapid passing through elementary stages of military training; i.e., the shortening of the universal original one-time term from two to one year — al though the final sum of time spent during obligatory terms of service in periods up to 56 days at a time fully brings the individual's contribution up to the two years' standard. This is the significance of the more popular term aehrigen-zeiignisp ( one-year-term certificate). Only in schools of medium-sized cities the classes shrink noticeably in size owing to the exit after passing unter-sekunda by those who have reached the goal of the oone-year certificate.n (The advantage of classes of smaller size for carrying on instruction in the following three upper grades cannot be under estimated; the maintenance, however, of a greater variety of schools of the higher order in cities with greater population as well as fre quent parallel classes cause the drop in enrol ment after unter-sekunda to appear but slight). Moreover, the number of those who enter "merely for sake of the one-year-certificate with no intention of pursuing the full nine years' course is very small. The very fact that all these schools of the higher order carry on instruc tion irrespective of a possible withdrawal after instead nstead of nine years of attendance elimi nates all unwholesome features of drawing pre mature lines or of even making early distinc tions which might possibly reflect harmful criti cism on the intellectual capacity of the individ ual pupil. Whether or not a boy is entrusted to the care of a school of the higher order is chiefly a matter of parental decision almost universally guided by quality and aspiration of intellectual inheritance. Only seemingly do such motives in selection indicate limitation. The roll-call of these schools of the higher order does not merely repeat itself from generation to generation; but shows signs of spreading and progress. It is a very subtle process slow but marked and best recorded by the sub stantial growth of the number of schools of this type as well as by the actual widening of •the social range from which the applications for entrance are filed. This growth is not merely indicative of the general increase of the population and the accompanying growth in wealth, but it is clearly indicative of one very striking phenomenon: the transition or the progress from one stratum of national society shows itself within the time interval of one generation to the next. The greatest and most obvious addition to the class patronizing the gymnasium, realgymnasium and ober-real schule can be traced back to the very classes mentioned above as representing the clerical element within the gigantic system of the national civil service. Invariably the successful vmittlere Beamte" (official holding an inter mediate position) is apt to try for his off spring some additional schooling and thereby some additional qualification securing ulti mately a corresponding rise into a wider social range.